Just what do successful people do that's different?

Will Durant wrote two of the best books on history ever – The Lessons of History and The Story of Philosophy. In the latter, he wrote when discussing Aristotle’s philosophy that “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

Highly successful people understand this better than anyone. They realize that the small daily habits we have play a major role in our success. So just what do they do differently?

Show Gratitude

This was the topic of my first book iSucceed because I believed then as I do now, in order to succeed you must come from a place of gratitude. We all have had our fair share of setbacks, but highly successful people don’t let failures define them. I once heard a multimillionaire being asked what he would tell his younger self, he said, “Fail a lot and fail fast.” Through failure, highly successful people grow. Gratitude and an appreciation for everything they have in life allow them to have a positive attitude no matter what life throws at them. To understand this more deeply, I recommend reading Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.

Meditate

There is a lot of noise in our lives. There’s business noise, family noise, friend noise, health noise, government noise. That noise prevents us from focusing on what we should be doing. Despite Tony Robbins being the energizer bunny on stage, giving 100% every time, he understands the importance of quiet thought. Many of my mentors make meditation a daily practice to clear away the noise and simply regroup their thoughts.

Rest

Sleep is incredibly underrated when it comes to productivity. It’s also one of the things so many entrepreneurs and CEOs sacrifice in order to achieve. According to the Rand Corporation, the United States’ economy alone loses about $411 billion a year due to sleep loss.

We can only be as productive as our body lets us be. Aim for eight hours a night. The results will surprise you. Arianna Huffington herself wrote the book, The Sleep Revolution. That alone sayssomething.

Exercise

“Some people don’t do well because they don’t feel well.” That’s what my mentor, Jim Rohn, taught me. I learned the hard way throwing my back out twice last year and then having sciatica that your health, or lack of it, limits your ability to get things done.

Want to improve your productivity starting tomorrow? Start doing some daily exercise. Done properly, even just 20 minutes a day, will have an incredible impact on your life and your health.

Block Time

It’s easy to say you’re going to do something. That’s the easy part. It’s the doing it that’s hard. Our brain likes to find creative new excuses or reasons why not to do things such as exercise, studying, reading, meditation. Block time says you will do something for a set period of time, no matter what. Block time also prevents our hobbies from bleeding into our productive time. It prevents your vices (video games, TV, YouTube or Snapchat) control you.

Write

Highly successful people understand their limitations, and memory is definitely one of them. They realize that no matter how smart they are, there is simply no way to remember everything which is why they write down anything of importance. Need to talk to a client, that gets written down. Have important dates to remember, they get written down.

Leave nothing to chance

Highly successful people don’t leave things to chance. They plan and plan some more. The words “I think” don’t exist for highly successful people. They want hard data before making any decisions. They have contingency plans in place in case things go wrong and backups for their backups. The amateur hopes things will go well, the pro makes sure they do.

Adrian Shepherd started his career as an ESL teacher in Japan, but today focuses on consulting with individuals and companies on productivity. His background in education helped him develop The One-Bite Time Management System (TMS), a revolutionary new system based entirely around simplicity: small bites that people can digest easily. He is based in Osaka, Japan. Learn more about Adrian at adrianshepherd.com.

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